LOOKSMAXXING: The Dangerous Trend Debunked | Dermatologist Deep Dive

Added: 2026-05-22

[00:00:00]My mother actually did find out that I was bone smashing, right? And wanted to put an end to that, so she inevitably took away my hammer to try and prevent me, but real ones know that's not going to stop a true looks maxing bone smasher, right? Ow.

[00:00:18]Couple more hits.

[00:00:19]And as you can see, I already started to bleed from just that amount of force contributed.

[00:00:25]>> So, looks maxing, what on earth is this?

[00:00:29]That's what I was going to have you explain to me. So, this is essentially a trend of Let's say that we go back to the bodybuilding era that I grew up on where people were in these forums online, and they would do all these extreme things in order to achieve the most maximal physique on their body. And so, they would do things like injecting steroids and human growth hormones and different variations of estrogen inhibitors. extreme sort of things that were happening where they were ordering these from other countries. They weren't necessarily safe, and they were trying to achieve like maximal physique, right?

[00:01:02]And what sort of evolved from that community is that instead of just focusing on physique, which a lot of the looks maxers also do and overall health, they also said, "Well, I also want other parts of me to look good as well. So, I also want to have a face that is {quote} optimal, hair that's optimal." And so, they've focused they've taken this extreme bodybuilding to essentially extreme facial aesthetics. And this goes as far as injecting themselves with filler and other things that they're buying online as well. And so, there's a basically extreme form of achieving what they consider to be an optimal aesthetic. So, this is an interesting take because this is going to be our perspective as doctors and dermatologists. And as I was watching that, I'm thinking in my head, "Okay, so he's trying to reshape his bone structure." We've seen other videos where they're either using medications or doing other procedures at home to optimize their looks. And I'm like, "Hey, we got to do some of that in the office. We use injections. We use lasers." That's kind of a crazy fancy, futuristic thing to do for somebody, but this is going to be our perspective on what looks maxing is. Is it something that could, should be done? Is this really just beauty influencing in a whole 'nother way geared towards men?

[00:02:09]We'll be doing a deep dive and talk about what this means for you. All right, so all things looks maxing and maybe we'll even have a looks maxing routine that we can chat through, something that's maybe safer, that can maybe give you the aesthetic that you're aiming for. So, all things looks maxing, here we go. Here we go.

[00:02:30]Exercising, for example, is a good thing, right? So, if you exercise, you run, you you eat well, that's going to increase your longevity, it's going to make you healthy overall, and it'll probably make you look better. Now, when you take exercising to the extreme and maybe you're not achieving your your exercise goals fast enough, then some people start to take shortcut. And those shortcuts a lot of times introduce where the danger can come in, right? And so, the looks maxing in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing. It's that it's when you take it to extreme to achieve outcomes that are not necessarily achievable normally, then that's where you can really start to get into a lot of trouble. So, we'll talk about how to really build a looks maxing sort of routine, but let's talk about what people are trying to achieve because I think what people are trying to achieve is not actually that unnecessary, let's say. So, let's start from the top down.

[00:03:11]So, when it comes to hair, when I see in the looks maxing community, they want to achieve fuller hair. They want to make it such that you can't see their scalp through their hair. They want to make it so that their hairline is pushed forward a bit, and so they want to basically maximize their hair volume, and they do this through many different methods. And then when you go down into the face, a lot of times they talk about getting rid of under eye bags and getting rid of dark circles, making your maxilla more prominent, your zygoma more prominent so that you can essentially have a more chiseled features, making your mandible more prominent so that you have less of the jowling that's occurring, and just what we would consider to be a more masculine shaped in the face, you know, protrusion of the chin, for example. And so, just basically maximizing sort of the features that are generally considered to be attractive in sort of the Eurocentric definition of attractiveness. And I think it's interesting because as you go through that list to one at a time, I'm thinking, "Okay, yeah, I want a hairline that's a little bit more forward. I'm actually think this is the hairline I was born with. It is pretty high. I would love for my hair to be even thicker." Like that's actually something I take an oral medication for cuz that's important to me. The other ones maybe aren't on my list, but they might be on yours. And so, what I find interesting is maybe it's not the message itself, it's the way that it's portrayed and the way that it's being done that seems just off-putting to me. Yeah, I think ultimately just the approach to it is different than the way that beauty is traditionally approached because a lot of these things that we do in the office are things that would be essentially considered look maxing. Like, for example, we inject filler here to make this area more prominent. We sometimes in some people who want more of a teardrop shaped face, we'll inject Botox into the masseters in order to slim out the face, for example. And men a lot of times will inject filler in the jawline in order to achieve a more prominent chin, for example. So, there are actually a lot of these things that happen, but I think the way that they're approaching it from a "Hey, that looks terrible and if you want to improve it, you have to do these extreme things."

[00:05:05]It's almost the way that it's being treated as more of a aggressively than ever before, which, you know, I think it in a way it is a bit off-putting when you see it put in that context, but a lot of times many people are doing things to cover their under eye bags and naturally doing those things, but the way that it's approached is seen a bit in a softer way than the way that the looks maxing community approaches it.

[00:05:25]So, I I often see people who come into the clinic and they're looking or wanting to do something for their skin or their appearance. said this in other videos, they're often apologetic about it. Like, "Oh, I know, it's just like dark spots or just wrinkles or it's whatever." Or it's a scar. Like, "Ah, yeah, this scar, I know it's not important, but, you know, it bothers me." And that is important. So, often things, especially when it comes to aging changes, I always tell people the same thing. It's like, "Look, when we look in the mirror, we want to see something that reminds us of ourselves.

[00:05:48]And I truly believe there's something useful, eternal, and timeless in all of us. And even though that seems to live perpetually, our body surrounding it does not. So, I think there is something that can be acceptable from this, and I think it's going to be very personalized what's important to you and I. And it I don't know. It's like I think the most important thing about this is to make sure that what is important to you is actually important to you. It's not something that has been proposed and encroached upon you to be important.

[00:06:12]Like, I think one thing I get from these is like, "Oh, you need to have slim nose. Like, you need this. You need this. You need this. I'm doing this, so you need this." Like, beauty should be very personalized. And so, I think it's almost like feels forced upon you to like meet those expectations in this setting. And I think that rubs me the wrong way. But then also, too, is the safety thing. So, we'll talk about some of the individual things that are done and perhaps what are better, safer alternatives for you to do. Let's talk about some of the pros that have emerged from the looks maxing videos that I've seen. Now, I haven't seen everything, but here are a few things that I've actually noticed that are sort of interesting as takeaways for me. So, first thing would be the emphasis on sunscreen. Actually, it's very popular within the looks maxing community, and not just protection around UVB, but also protection around UVA. And so, you'll see them say, "Hey, you need to find a sunscreen with broad-spectrum protection. You actually need to use it every day to maximize your skin care."

[00:06:58]There's also a huge huge push for ingredients like tretinoin, retinoids as being a really good option for people.

[00:07:04]And also, a big push towards things like minoxidil for hair growth. So, a lot of the fundamentals that we recommend are often recommended within this community, and these are things that I've always been a big proponent of, especially sunscreen. So, so I like that about it.

[00:07:16]The second thing that's been sort of interesting is this approach or normalizing of makeup in men in terms of not making people feel alienated for necessarily using makeup. And so, a lot of these looks maxers, which would be considered hyper-masculine, are ultimately saying, like, "I would rather wear makeup than have under-eye bags or dark circles. To me, maximizing the way that I look in my my is more important than what society thinks about me as a male. So, that's essentially some of the core messages that are out there. And so, they'll show other men how to do their makeup. Why is this important?

[00:07:50]Because some men want to wear makeup and they feel like they can't. And so, this allows beauty and your pursuit of beauty or what makes you feel comfortable and confident in the world more approachable when people that are considered hyper masculine are now engaging in these types of behaviors. And then I would say finally, there is there is an emphasis on overall just health and well-being and doing things like reducing stress, reducing cortisol, and things like that which I do think ultimately are quite healthy, eating healthy diet. So, I think there are a few things that have come out of this and that are quite good, but then the extremes of it are bad. Yeah, and a lot of that. I mean, I love to exercise. I think exercise is the fountain of youth if ever there was one for mental health and physical health. I mean, we know it increases neuroplasticity, we know it increases longevity, it decreases risk of cancer, heart disease. It's just everything it touches has a positive even if there's always a trade-off in real life. And so, I also too, I'd say one of the most common comments I get on the street like recognizes me or something, it's most often just like your traditional straight male saying, "Hey, thank you for bringing into the space." Like they actually feel like we brought a level of approachability and normalcy and just taking care of your skin. And I completely understand that because I would say I didn't wash my face until I was mid-20s. So, I think there is inherent value into bringing something relatable into content like that. Like meeting a person where they are and like breaking outside of norms into just making it feel okay for you. Yeah, there's a small anecdote myself. I actually wanted to learn about these things and there was really nowhere to learn about them. And so, I would walk into Sephora and I felt like it wasn't coded properly for me and I didn't know how to approach the space. It felt overwhelming and so, I would just walk in and walk out and not to end up taking care of my skin. My sister saw my eyebrows when I was younger and she's like, "Your eyebrows are crazy. We have to do something about this." As any older sister would do, she goes and tweezes my eyebrows and then of course when they start growing back in, I don't like the way that growing back in goes.

[00:09:35]And so, from 14 until now, you know, I've always kept my eyebrows relatively neat as a result of that and I would get criticized by my family members and friends for, you know, you're a male, why are you doing your eyebrows, right?

[00:09:45]And so I do think that, you know, this approachability now of skin care and taking care of yourself and taking care of in grooming habits is important next phase and I'm glad that people are actually starting to pursue it. So now let's talk about the extreme negative things that I've been starting to see within this community and one of the worst things I would say, probably the top worst thing that I've seen is injecting without training hyaluronic acid fillers into someone's face from either your own face or someone else's face. Now, if you don't have training to do this, first off, even if you do have training to do this, injecting filler is extremely dangerous. You can inject a blood vessel which can cause necrosis, it can cause blindness if you inject it in the wrong area and so even skilled injectors make it mistakes. Now, if you're completely untrained, infection is going to be a common risk there as well and so this is where I start to get a bit nervous where you're trying to maximize your looks and that could actually cause a lot of danger if you're doing this at home, for example.

[00:10:34]>> Another thing I've seen is just taking Accutane to shrink your nose. Now, one video said that it can shrink it up to 40%. I think that even if somewhere that number exists from someone who has seen hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of patients take Accutane, 40% is egregiously exaggerated. Will it shrink your nose? Yeah, it can for some people and I've definitely seen that and it's also viral in the non-look maxing community. I can't believe I haven't seen more people come into the office asking for Accutane to shrink their nose because it's been viral on TikTok multiple times. It reprograms your oil glands, it can be curative for acne and that permanent shrinkage of oil glands where they're densest does have a physical change. Now, the broader conversation with this though is the use of medications for either cosmetic purpose or perhaps the use of medications indiscriminately and without proper oversight. So we see this here, we see this right now in the weight loss community with GLPs and so I love the accessibility of these things, but there needs to be some conversation, there probably should be a professional voice in that conversation either promoting it or disparaging it, and both are probably correct. It's always a little bit of both when that conversation is broached.

[00:11:37]>> Right. And so, it's using a medication, essentially, off-label to achieve looks maxing, maximizing your looks. And maybe it's not appropriate for you, or it's not under proper guidance, right? And so, you like you said, that this is very prominent with GLP, Ozempic, Mounjaro.

[00:11:53]Now there's the retatrutide, or whatever, that everyone's talking about, which is like the maximum form of Ozempic that's coming out, and Accutane, and so on and so forth, minoxidil, right? Like you want to be using these under supervision. You want to know the pros and the cons, and you want to be able to call somebody if something does go wrong, or you have questions. And so, doing this under medical supervision is going to be very important. And then I would say, finally, one of the worst things that I've seen is the bone smashing, essentially. And this is where you basically hit your bones with a hammer, whether it's your chin, your jaw, your zygoma, in order to cause hypertrophy of the bone through fractures to, essentially, increase the volume of the bone. Which, I guess, theoretically could work, but you just wouldn't have control over how your bone would respond to that. So, you could get asymmetry of the bone, for example. You could end up getting nodules. Could may not even go that deep, and you end up just getting bruises and hematomas, which can be dangerous. So, ultimately, I think that there's a lot of risk when you're doing something like that, and there are better ways to achieve that look if you wanted to do so in a safe way.

[00:12:56]>> The crazy thing is I'm trying to figure out a way to say it's bad, but not just say it's obviously bad. And I'm like actually having a hard time finding a way to say it, because you're breaking your bones at home, hoping they heal well, hoping they heal correctly, hoping you don't damage any collateral structures. I mean, I do a lot of rebuilding on people's faces for skin cancers, and I know it's quite involved to get the result you want. So, I just only see this going either badly, or being neutral, or causing damage. It's not doing anything, and I highly recommend not doing this. Right. So, let's talk about building a looks maxing routine to kind of target probably some of the main issues that we see and we'll keep it very simplified because I think the reality is most people want something simplified. So, for each of the issues that people are targeting in the looks-maxing community, we'll give you one recommendation. Now, that's not going to be robust because we could go over an entire looks-maxing routine. I would argue that Dr. Maxwell and I are in a way original looks-maxers.

[00:13:51]Okay? And the argument comes from we've been trying to you know, we we're not the best about it because you know, we get often distracted by the optionality out there and in the business of life.

[00:14:02]But, you know, since we've started making videos for all of you, we've been testing, trying, trying to maximize and enhance our own looks and routines. And so, I think in a way we are doing a ma- a looks-maxing light version. Soft maxing, I think they call it. So, ultimately, you know, so I I I think we have some credibility in terms of what we've done. Now, I know the looks-maxing community would look at us and rate us at a very sing numbers. I think Dr. Maxwell would get probably like an eight due to his the strength of his mandible and I would probably fall into the six category in the looks-maxing uh world. But, let's talk about a looks-maxing routine starting from the hair down. So, one thing that you could do for your hair to maximize the volume, there's many things you could do and we always say one thing is not great for hair. But, one thing that you would do that you would say that would maximize the hair without causing much damage.

[00:14:49]>> I'm going between a topical or a device here, which is kind of crazy cuz I'm trying to keep it simple. So, I'll just go with the topical. I love that the the ordinary peptide serum that we talked about. We've talked about this a few times very recently because it's inexpensive. It actually has a really complimentary benefits with like peptides that both mildly I think very softly help with hormonal part. But, not just the hormonal part of hair loss, they it's also have some ingredients that help with the hair growth phase.

[00:15:12]Also though, just the look of it. Not just hair loss, it helps with the hair density, the appearance, the strength, the structure, even the anchoring fibers based off of some of the studies. So, I think for just a healthy full head of hair, that's full of supporting ingredients at a reasonable cost.

[00:15:25]>> Okay, I would probably, just in terms of simplicity, I would get one of those compounded finasteride minoxidil tablets combo.

[00:15:33]>> For that prescriptions around the table.

[00:15:35]>> go kind of knock out everything that you would need and that would be most that would be for males that combination and for females would probably go with probably topical minoxidil or oral spironolactone.

[00:15:45]>> Yeah, oral spironolactone, oral minoxidil for females would be a killer combination. I totally forgot prescriptions around the table, like I said. If we're going for efficacy, simplicity, those two would be excellent.

[00:15:55]>> so let's talk about just skin care, glowing skin, healthy skin in general.

[00:15:59]What would you do? I mean, it's two things. It's sunscreen, sun protection, and a retinoid. So, in the morning you're using a broad spectrum protection. Totally agree with the premise of the way the US labels their sunscreen, it's based off of the UVB ability or the the ability of the sunscreen to block UVB, which is most involved in your burns and your DNA damage for skin cancer. It's harder to know how well they cover UVA rays cuz broad spectrum in America is a loose term compared to worldwide ratings. But you do need a mineral filter like zinc or you would need something like avobenzone to help block the UVA primarily, not entirely, but primarily aging rays of the sun. Right. Most American sunscreens do block a Actually, I don't know of a American sunscreen that doesn't block against UVA rays. We just don't have a rating system in the United States for the UVA protection.

[00:16:46]And so, you can use an American sunscreen as long as it has avobenzone or zinc or titanium to give you that broad spectrum. And most most sunscreens are going to be broad spectrum in the US. Albeit, we have less filters than there are available in Korea or in Europe that have that UVA protection. A lot of the newer filters that have not been accepted here do have broader and more stable UVA protection. And so, broad spectrum sunscreen, number one thing that you can do, and then a topical retinoid of some form, whether it's going to be retinol, retinaldehyde, tretinoin, or tazarotene. I think that's going to give you the biggest bang for your buck. And as long as you're moisturizing, you likely will see good, healthy, radiant skin that a lot of people in the looks maxing community are trying to achieve. So, next up, fuller eyebrows. Now, this is an interesting one to me because the same hormones that make you lose hair on your head are actually irrelevant here, but helpful here. So, this one you would need to just use I would just say minoxidil.

[00:17:33]Topical minoxidil is going to be your best bet because it indiscriminately helps the hair growth through elongating the hair growth phase and then to a lesser extent flood circulation. Yeah, and the reason why I said oral minoxidil finasteride earlier was because that oral minoxidil no benefit for the eyebrows and the beard would likely help fill in both of those areas, which is a target area for a lot of people. But yeah, topical minoxidil will work great here. Your peptide serums also work great. You could even use topical Latisse on the eyebrows and that would also fill in that area. So, if you're looking for that denser thicker eyebrows, those would be my my top recommendations and they shouldn't be harmful now. Be careful with Latisse if it gets into the eyes, it can change the color of your eyes. If you have lighter eyes, it can make your eyes darker. In some areas, it can cause some recessing of the fat. And so, you know, around the eyes it does have some negative consequences even though that's how it was formulated. But as you can see, all of the stronger the ingredient, the stronger the medication, the bigger the benefits and also the more conversation around risks, which is why it's always very personalized and long-form is really the best way to ever talk about prescription medications. So then, next up is kind of some of the changes under the eye. You can call them dark circles, you can call it hollowing, shadowing.

[00:18:34]This is a big problem and a difficult one because these changes are often structural, not skin. Not that they can't be, but they're often from either bone resorption here, genetic showing of the musculature or vessels underneath the eyes. And so, the most effective thing you can do is actually just put filler in this area. We have a lot of our colleagues who like to use different things. A cannula is a good way to address this area. We're just putting filler here creates space between the skin and the underlying structures, helping improve shadowing and showing through of something underneath. Yeah, and so, dark circles, difficult area to treat. Now, if you simply there's kind of a deeper to superficial approach you could take, right? So, if you have the hollowing, you know, filler is going to do the best job there. If you have some real skin quality issues, dark circle bags issues, you know, even laser micro needling, if you're ever getting those procedures done, they can be very helpful there. Now, when you go even less invasive than that, you can think about a topical cream. We have a Remedy Dark Circle Under Eye Cream, that's something useful for you. It has all the ingredients that you would need in an eye cream, but it's not going to correct under eye hollows and it's not going to, you know, correct some of these structural issues that somebody might have underneath the eye. And then simply you can use makeup, right? So, this is popular within the looks maxing community, but being able to, you know, figure out what makeup shade works for you or using one of these under eye correctors, whether it's from dermatology or color science, which are basically like SPF under eye correctors that have some degree of color cosmetic to them, can correct that under eye area so that it gives you that immediate benefit of masking dark circles without having to do any procedure at all. And so, that would be probably the easiest thing to do if you had dark circles and bags and were trying to hide them immediately, would be to use something like that. So, on of the causes of the hollows here, we talked about bone resorption here and not only does it affect the skin around the eyes, it also affects some of the lines below here as well, the nasolabial and melolabial folds. It makes this much more prominent. As the fat has moved down, as the skin moves down, and so simply adding filler here does help soften those. Now, I'm very particular about when and where to use filler. And so, when you add it here, this is one of the most common with this in the lips, this is one of the most common ways people way over correct and it's a slippery slope. So, your goal, okay, my goal, your goal is your goal, my goal is my goal, but I want it to look natural. I want to reproduce something that you had in that. I want it to be subtle. So, your goal should be to replace the volume here and not continue to add add add add add because that's when you get kind of that chipmunk appearance over time that you see in at least a lot of celebrities historically. Yeah, so instead of bone smashing this area here to cause hypertrophy, you can use small amounts of filler, not you, but the the doctor that's injecting you can use small amounts of filler here. Now, this can be hyaluronic acid filler, and we're usually going to use something that's a bit more rigid. So, there's different forms of hyaluronic acid filler that are more rigid that when you inject them, they are able to hold structure more, and then there are some that are more fluid that you would want to inject in the lips to give more of that fluid lip structure that you would want, the softness to the lips. And then you would want something more structural here, or you would want to inject something that's biostimulatory, something like a Radiesse or Sculptra, which is going to basically stimulate your natural collagen production and sort of fill in this area over time. And so, I would say sort of injecting this area softly to create that contour so that you can get that structure of the Chad face that a lot of people are trying to achieve would be achieved through injecting along this area and making sure that it's done so in a smooth way. And I would avoid bone smashing. So, next up, we'll go jawline. Um have you seen those videos of people like taking a little apple and they're like shink and then they're like split the apple. Now, so, it's not real.

[00:22:08]Don't worry about it. But, basically, if you want a stronger jawline, I mean, classically, what you'll see is injecting filler into here. I have seen this go terribly wrong so many times that too. It's not There's not really a good area to inject it to. Like Like here, there's a really good anchor to inject against, but because the muscle sits right on top of the bone, a lot of times they just inject too superficially and you can actually like see the injection, which looks really bad. Yeah, and too, like knowing when I recreate surgical lines around the jaw, you have to Your jawline changes as you change your head position, and so when you get filler in this area, that kind of can accentuate, I guess, the unnaturalness of it when it's not done perfectly. So, I will actually go with something we've talked about, and that's I I don't mind like the chewing of the gum thing or the like I don't know what you call them, the little exercise things. The goal would be to hypertrophy, the opposite of when you inject Botox here, but to hypertrophy the masseter muscles and give you a a bit more structure and fullness in the lower face. I think it's harmless. I think some of the wads of gum I've seen chewed chewed are absurd, but I do think it's harmless and it can help you get a stronger jaw over a long period of time. It's interesting. I had a friend in in college. I won't say his name, but he was probably the original looks maxer now that I think about it because he would eat like six almonds every hour on the hour. He had a timer that he would set. He used to weigh his chicken and he used to exercise his jaw with gum to and he had a very a very prominent jaw as a result of it. So, I do believe that it actually worked cuz you could actually see like the muscles flexing his jaw here. Like he he was like the extreme form of this and so it worked at least it looked like it worked in him. Maybe he was always he already had already that sort of square appearance, but first thing I would say is that if you're trying to achieve that square appearance or if you have jowls, I would avoid masseter Botox at all costs because that will actually make it worse. A lot of people think jaw, they think masseter Botox like it's sort of the natural inclination. That will certainly make things worse. Injecting filler if it's done thoughtfully and done by a skilled injector can look nice. What actually is a bit underrated here is injecting the chin. In fact, when you inject the chin a lot of times it brings everything else forward with it and because there is a bony anchor here versus over here, it's a bit easier to inject with having it look a bit more natural. Now, that's on the injection side of things and probably what you would be to actually exercising your jaw. There are lots of like mewing type of exercises, tongue position, like you know, people lifting their chin up and down, strengthening the platysma muscles, you know, chewing to achieve like stronger jawline. I don't know enough about the exercises, but I do believe intuitively that exercising those areas if you are serious and dedicated about it would actually make a difference to adding more volume to a lower face. And I love the I love the take here about the filler on the chin because again, when you think about changes of aging too, like I'm just considering this over a person's life, bony areas do recess over time and so again, it's one of those more natural correct ways to use filler. Yeah, so you know, mandibular recession you know, is commonly pointed out within the looks maxing community. I would say they've gone as far as to extreme of recommending orthodontic surgery, what they call a Lefort procedure, where they sort of reposition the mandible. I mean, I think that would be an extreme thing to do. I think there are things that you can do that are less aggressive, but if you have seriously, like where it's a genetic recession of the jaw, then maybe sometimes only surgery is something that could fix that. But for most people who are just trying to achieve a bit more of a square jaw, can do so through a bit more natural means ultimately. And so I don't know that I would go to an extreme of a jaw surgery, which can cause a lot of issues later on. Yeah, and that kind of reminds me of how we have these I don't know if it's really becoming common practice, but the limb lengthening procedures in younger years to be taller. Like I'm 5'9" and 3/4" on its holiday, every bit of it. And the idea of being 6'3", you know, is appealing. But the videos I see of that look terrible. I feel like it is a risky procedure. And again, when you go to breaking bones, how do they set? How does your rest of your body adapt to it?

[00:25:54]I don't know. So, similarly, the resetting of the jaw.

[00:25:56]>> The reason why I'm a bit against the bone stuff, bone bone smashing, the limb lengthening procedures, is because prior to this life in dermatology, I studied radiology. So, I would look at so many bony injuries, not as a result of looksmaxing, but just as a little and injuries, for example, fractures, osteoporotic fractures, falling fractures, runners fractures. And so, not everybody's body responds to bony trauma the same way. And so, we would see extreme growth from like osteophytes that would grow as a result of trauma.

[00:26:27]So, everybody's bones respond differently to trauma. And so, you you can't control what how your bones are going to respond to these things. And so, a lot some people do very poorly with these procedures, and that's why I wouldn't recommend them. Moving on from these bony structures, we'll go to some of the softer, swishier structures of the lips. When it comes to lips, lip maxing, we'll call it. What What's the goal here?

[00:26:48]>> Yeah, a lot of people do want fuller lips. And then the other thing that a lot of people want to do is they want to if they have a gummy smile where they show a lot of gum when they smile, they want to do things to reduce that so that they don't show as much teeth or as much gums. And so with the gummy smile, you can certainly actually treat this very consistently, very regularly with either the Botox in that can actually help inhibit the smile.

[00:27:12]>> Yeah, if you inject Botox in the upper lips, it can it can help with that gummy smile. You can also do what we call a lip flip where you inject a small amount of Botox in the lip and that actually causes the lips to look a bit fuller.

[00:27:24]Now, if they inject too much, you can have trouble sipping out of a straw and so on and so forth. Of course, you want to go to somebody who knows what they're doing there as well. And that addresses the gummy smile. Now, for fuller lips, you can do the lip plumper. They work.

[00:27:35]>> They're irritating as can be. You get some red full lips for an hour or two.

[00:27:38]And alternatively, filler is an option.

[00:27:41]I I have pretty strong feelings about lip filler as well. I think people's faces tend to fit their own lips inherently and so I think a lot of facial structures don't fit the lips that get implanted on their face and so to speak. So, but it certainly can be effective. Again, it's a slippery slope where you kind of chase fuller than you were yesterday and it can get out of control.

[00:28:01]>> The issue with the lip filler, like if I'm being fully honest, is that a lot of times it can look really good when it first gets done because it tends to be cohesive initially, meaning when you inject it, kind of stays where you injected it for a bit, right? So, you know, you inject it here, you create sort of a structure of the lip, it looks like a lip. And then as time as that gets dissolved, as that starts to spread out a bit, right? When that happens, you start to lose that structure of the lip.

[00:28:24]>> And so my experience with lip filler is that the more that you do it, the more distorted your lips tend to get. So, a small amount of lip filler infrequently can definitely volumize the lip. But I think how it's been done historically has led to a lot of people wanting to get it dissolved because it tends to create this like puffiness or lack of structure in the lip that starts to look unnatural with time. And so I haven't been that happy with how lip filler has looked with time as when we initially injected it if I'm being fully honest.

[00:28:51]>> And next up, we'll just talk about overall health, that being diet and exercise and muscle mass, whatever you want your body habits to look like, right? I have really strong opinions on this, too. And my really strong opinion is there are multiple ways to do this.

[00:29:02]Like I I have done so much personally. I exercise at least 5 days a week, probably for the last 18 years, probably with one break. I've gotten off of that schedule. And I'm a firm believer in modest exercise and consistency over time. I try to be more functionally healthy and lean. It's just but that's not my my body wants to be a little muscular bowling ball. And I am constantly battling against that. But I want it to be functional. And that may not be your goal. So, there are multiple ways to be healthy. I do believe aerobic health is a huge measure of your fitness. What do you think? Yeah, you know, I think exercise will make you feel better. It will optimize the way that you think. It will, you know, overall even help with your skin health in general. So, I think exercising is a critical thing. I don't know that there's like one best way to do it, right? Whether it's, you know, just pure cardio, you know, running and that necessarily that look of like marathon running what that does to the skin, maybe not optimized for what a lot of the looks maxing community might look like. On the flip side, things like CrossFit like also may not give you sort of that aesthetic appearance that you want. I I think there's some some in between of like calisthenics and some mild weightlifting that I think help people achieve sort of that optimal physique but also good cardiovascular health rather than being on one extreme or the other. And then, I think diet plays a huge role in this in reducing your carbohydrate intakes, specifically simple sugars, is probably going to have the biggest difference. Now, when we talk about injectables in this way, right? Whether it's Ozempic or Mounjaro or retatrutide or whatever is coming out next, I think these are things to consider actually with your doctor. I mean, time will tell, but I I think the long-term data on this is likely going to show a net benefit for most people who use these drugs appropriately and who have a good indication to use them.

[00:30:41]I mean, we can talk more about this at some point, but it's a topic I've dived into quite a bit. And I do think that way that it alters your metabolism of insulin, glucose, glucagon, and the ratio between these, the net benefit on the health is quite positive for most people who need these medications. And so, I think we have to get into the details about it, but time will tell.

[00:30:59]>> Yeah, and we will do actually do a deep dive on those ingredients. And he said it the perfect way, it's a net benefit.

[00:31:04]Net benefit. Meaning that the pros will outweigh the cons. And guess what?

[00:31:08]Everything in life has both. So, I do agree. I think my inclination is to say that those things will have a net benefit for most people, and not everyone. And some people will have really bad side effects. Some people will have a net negative. But I think for most people, it's going to change health in a positive way. And then for diet specifically, so I I am a firm believer in the lower carb, low glycemic index diet. It's been transformative for me. And I have anecdote I've seen as a professional and a person, nothing seems to just transform a person's body and health like that. Now, does that mean it's good for everybody? No. Does that mean there's not downsides? No. Does that mean it's perfect for you?

[00:31:40]>> No. There are so many ways. You can just eat the Mediterranean diet. We know that that is helpful. There are tons of different ways that if you can be consistent, and usually it revolves around moderation. But whatever works for you consistently, that's probably going to be the right one for you.

[00:31:52]That's what we have to say about looks maxing. Looks maxing is a trend which is just a name to maybe an extreme form of things that a lot of people were already leaning towards naturally, and maybe even things I did when I was younger to try to enhance the way that I looked, and what a lot of us already do who watch this channel trying to make sure that they look the healthiest that they can. And so, hopefully this guides you with how we would look at looks maxing from a medical perspective. But let us know about anything you've seen in the looks maxing community that you'd like us to comment on. But what I would like to see as an antidote to this trend, which I'm much more interested in. I'm not interested, let me just be clear, as somebody who's in their late 30s approaching 40, in doing everything at the maximum speed anymore. So, I'm not interested in the highest dose of tazarotene in order to achieve the most maximum efficacy out of a retinoid. What I'm much more interested in now is the sort of microdosing world. The idea of using small amounts to achieve essentially general health over time without the negative side effects, right? And finding that perfect dose where you don't have side effects, but you ultimately get to achieve the results that you want. And so maybe at some point we'll do a video on the concept of micromaxing to achieve your goals. No, I actually love that. I >> think for me, too, it's been a life lesson and something I've learned about myself is again, it's all about consistency. And most people I've seen who either exercise they're going hard 110% for a week or one day a week. And then they get injured, right? Like that's what I would do, right? I would say like I'm really dedicated to working out today and so then I would go super hard for, you know, a week. I would tear a muscle or get hurt or be sore and then not want to do it again, right? And so it's like those things that you do every day that you can actually tolerate to do every day is where you like really start to max. Mhm. It's just time. But anyway, thanks for this deep dive. I feel like this could have been a podcast. Um, but I do think that these types of longer conversations about more nuanced topics are important, especially on long form cuz not many people get the chance to talk about these things at length.

[00:33:48]So, appreciate you on this journey and we'll see you next time. See you next time.